The “Musée des ondes Emile Berliner” is proud to announce the launch of its new project: the Emile Berliner Sound & Image Archive (EBS&IA), available to all, April 2018.
Made in celebration of Canada’s 150th Anniversary and thanks to funding from the Documentary Heritage Communities Program from the Library and Archives Canada, EBS&IA is an online resource of documents and audio objects from the museum’s collection. Rare and fragile pieces from the early days of recorded sound, as well as items not ordinarily accessible to museum visitors, have been made available through an online database of over 500 images and 100 audio files. Through the engagement of enthusiastic volunteers and young professionals, the museum shares valuable cultural objects with close links to the histories of Montreal, Quebec, and Canada.
EBS&IA provides a portal for users to learn about the important and vibrant history of Emile Berliner, the Montreal Berliner Gram-o-phone Company, and histories in the fields of sound recording and the global audio industry. It also highlights the technological advancements and changes in recorded sound over the decades through digitized audio recordings, streamed directly on the archive website. The archive aims to serve a wide audience of users from the general public, to researchers, cultural workers, and institutions far and wide.
With the launch of the archive, MOEB hopes to form new connections with related organizations and invite wider public interest in the museum and its mandate. Montreal played a key role in the evolution of sound recording and sound technology, and the EBS&IA project shares these important subjects with anyone and everyone who uses the website.
The Emile Berliner Sound & Image Archive is made possible thanks to funding from Library and Archives Canada and The Documentary Heritage Communities Program.
